Ever since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards, a shot was heard around the world and that is, the messenger will be attacked if his words do not sit well with the king or the peasants. And a few days ago, comedian, Dave Chappelle was physically assaulted on stage. This attack appeared to be premeditated and is part of a general violent trend creeping up in many segments of American life. Perhaps the biggest recurring theme in comedy over the last several years has been stand-ups lamenting that performing is no longer a creative safe space — that some fans are policing edgy content, ever-ready to be social justice warriors about a performer who makes a joke that crosses perceived lines. Tonight on Ground Zero, Clyde Lewis talks with comedian, Reggie French about (S)L AUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE.
SHOW SAMPLE:
SHOW PODCAST:
https://aftermath.media/podcast/5-5-22-slaughter-is-the-best-medicine-w-reggie-french/
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
I like many of you can say that I just got out of Facebook jail. The reason I was in Facebook jail was because believe it or not I made a Joke about the Russian. That shocked me because here I though they were fair game as we are in a proxy war with them .
Usually when I post things on Facebook – I add a snarky or funny comment as a way to lighten the headline. I know that sometimes my jokes are funny – maybe a bit too high brow but this one was obvious.
The story I posted was about how the Russians have decided to quit the space station because of the troubles they are having with us and the war.
I captioned the story with a joke.
“The Damn Russians were always clogging the space toilet anyway.”
That joke got me a 24-hour ban –and a 29 day reduction of my news feed reach.
So I decided to appeal – they turned it down.
I was baffled – they said that I had posted hate speech – and I wondered what kind of hate was I posting?
I guess the disinformation police has made it quite clear that reporters, journalists, satirists, and comediennes are now walking on eggshells in an era where people do not see the joke of what politics has become.
This reminds me of that scene the movie, Joker where he tells Murray Franklin played by Robert DeNiro about how the system decides what is right or wrong — how we are told when to laugh and when to cry – when to fear and when to lay down and die.
Joker says: “Comedy is subjective, Murray. Isn’t that what they say? All of you, the system that knows so much, you decide what’s right or wrong. The same way that you decide what’s funny or not. Everybody is awful these days. It’s enough to make anyone crazy.”
He continues as the audience watches in disbelief:
“Have you seen what it’s like out there, Murray? Do you ever actually leave the studio? Everybody just yells and screams at each other. Nobody’s civil anymore! Nobody thinks what it’s like to be the other guy.
They think that we’ll just sit down and take it like good little boys! That we won’t werewolf and go wild!”
Yes, it seems that many people have lost their minds and want to go werewolf on a lot of things these days.
We are a violence and war culture that can become savage in seconds.
I find it sad, even pitiful that neither side left or right sees the similarities between their behavior and that of their opponents: exaggerated fears, and in response pinning their hopes on empty suits with empty promises.
But what is most disturbing is that in the circus if someone decides that war is a racket there are many clowns that will take out a hammer and pound into your head the idea that war is the chaos needed to keep the culture healthy.
If you decide to speak out or joke about it undefined you are subject to character assassination or worse.
Being blocked on Facebook happens all the time undefined but I was blocked for telling a joke -and well if you remove laughter from the world undefined then we need to start realizing just how tyrannical things have become.
We need to be frank and open with what we are up against,
In the present, there are clowns that want you to identify with them – they want you to accept their absurd explanations for everything – they want your loyalty and unceasing support of destruction.
The media will continue to promote the identity war. It is there to compartmentalize and create cliques within the collectives that wish to create scapegoats.
I have decided to stop with the BS and declare that we now live in a self-policing dictatorship. The lives we are living do not bear the quality of what Americans are used to. This world that i wake up to undefined certainly appears to be similar to the world I woke up in south America in 1980undefineds.
I don’t care what political party you belong to or what religious affiliation you have undefined we now live in a dictatorship and since the majority of Americans have not lived under one it is going to be a hard sell.
When a sitting president continues a proxy war to drum up some shallow form of patriotism I am reminded of the Falkland island war where Argentine leaders tried to drum up support for their dictatorship and silenced those who wished to reveal that it was pointless.
When a sitting President vilifies a political philosophy that is an alternative to his and makes it sound like a fanatical mob that needs to be removed -he begins to sound like a dictator.
With his agenda stalled, inflation out of control, and most Americans refusing to believe the White House narrative that itundefineds all Putinundefineds fault, President Joe Biden is now lashing out at the so-called undefinedMAGA agenda.undefined
In Wednesday remarks prior to the Fed decision on rates, Biden suggested that GOP proposals are largely in-line with Donald Trumpundefineds Make America Great Again ethos which champions lower taxes, America first trade policies, and border security.
During his speech, Biden sought to distance his own economic agenda from Trumpundefineds, saying: undefinedIt’s a MAGA agenda. Meanwhile, millionaires and billionaires and corporations skate by,undefined pointing to a proposal by Florida GOP Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate GOP campaign organization.
undefinedImagine that. Just imagine that. I think it is truly outrageous,undefined Biden continued, adding: undefinedIt’s extreme, as most MAGA things are.undefined
This president is now calling those who oppress him extremists undefined and this is not all that is happening undefined the ministry of truth that he has created with the department of Homeland security will see to it that those who wish to voice a contrasting point of you will be suspect of domestic terrorism.
This is not America nor does it reflect American Values.
The Disinformation Governance Board should have been a clue for everyone that we are living in a dictatorship.
By creating this ministry of truth , the U.S. government is creating a crisis monitor with the dial permanently set to “existential threat.” No one inside the board will have the incentive—or the courage—to dial it down.
The dangers of this Orwellian nightmare will be amplified if it becomes the tool of partisan political actors. And it already has. Especially when people see that their government wishes to eliminate uncomfortable speech there are some that wish to fight for the cause and eliminate those with controversial opinions.
Perhaps the biggest recurring theme in comedy over the last several years has been stand-ups lamenting that performing is no longer a creative safe space — that some fans are policing edgy content, ever-ready to tweet about a performer who makes a joke that crosses perceived lines.
Ever since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the academy awards undefined a shot was heard round the world undefined and that is the messenger will be attacked if his words do not sit well with the King or the peasants.
But it did not stop there actress Olivia Wilde was confronted at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last month by a process server issuing custody papers from Jason Sudeikis undefined he broke through her act and said the show is over you have been served.
And then , Dave Chappelle was assaulted by an armed man who rushed the stage during his Hollywood Bowl set at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival. The man was named Isaiah Lee and carried with him a knife. the media has been silent about motive undefined and he may not even be charged with a felony assault charge.
What was different about the attack on Chappelle was this was premeditated and dangerous, and it seems part of a general violent trend creeping up in many segments of American life.
But of course someone was able to blame this on Donald Trump. On ABCundefineds The View Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin blamed Trump for Dave Chappelle getting attacked on stage.
They claim he got into the minds of the entire population. undefinedIt didnundefinedt happen before,undefined Behar insisted. Sunny added: undefinedBut I think Trump unleashed some incivility in our country.undefined
Comedians as far as i know were not attacked on stage during the trump administration undefined only now -but is it really Trumps fault undefined or are we falling apart as a nation because of the leadership or lack of leadership we have now.
With Everything falling apart around us it appears that Americans canundefinedt take a joke.
This reality show you are living in is not a dream and it is not about Trump politics undefined it is time the left admit that the leader they have chosen is a mad dictator and we as a people have given up our ability to express ourselves. We canundefinedt eve laugh anymore or else we will be cancelled or worse.
When you live under a dictatorship life is like a brutal reality show. Much like the fabricated universe in film The Truman Show, in which a man’s life is the basis for an elaborately staged television show aimed at selling products and procuring ratings, the political scene in the United States has devolved over the years into a carefully calibrated exercise in how to manipulate, polarize, propagandize and control a population.
his is the magic of the reality TV programming that passes for politics today: as long as we are distracted, entertained, occasionally outraged, always polarized but largely uninvolved and content to remain in the viewer’s seat, we’ll never manage to present a unified front against tyranny (or government corruption and ineptitude) in any form.
The more that is beamed at us, the more inclined we are to settle back in our comfy recliners and become passive viewers rather than active participants as unsettling, frightening events unfold.
We don’t even have to change the channel when the subject matter becomes too monotonous. That’s taken care of for us by the programmers in the state run media.
The ongoing reality show that is life in the American police state feeds the citizenry’s voracious appetite for titillating, soap opera drama. We have gone from COVID-19 lockdowns to Trump-Biden election drama to the Russia-Ukraine crisis to the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings to Will Smith’s on-camera assault of comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards Ceremony to the leak from the supreme court about Roe v Wade, and now the Chappelle attack.
The distractions, distortions, and political theater just keep coming.
Now we have yet another even that shows us that free speech is dying and so is laughter.
We are now lacking a sense of spiritual courage, and laughter helps us heal undefined but soon that too will be something they will try to police.
You will be told to laugh when it is appropriate -when it is approved by the state.
Can you believe this?
There is a drumbeat of fear-mongering so intense and constant that it is almost comical if it weren’t so effective in reducing people to quaking, frightened children.
The need to obey the authorities and submit to their will is now something we have allowed ourselves to get used to.
Scenarios of fear have been rehearsed and produced for decades by the intelligence media giants on a multitude of issues, large and small.
They are rooted in a spiritually nihilistic political propaganda campaign that is exponentially increasing fear, anxiety, and despondency on a vast scale, which is its intent. Fearful people are easily cowered and controlled.
The elites know that regular people throughout the world are fed up with being subjected to violence and abuse in multiple forms, and if courage triumphs over their fears, they might join in worldwide solidarity and revolt, as they have been doing in various places recently.
To prevent this, the authorities must use terror tactics to divide and conquer them. If people dare to rise up and even question the propaganda, they have been and will be called terrorists for doing so. Dissent is now equated with terrorism and thus it must be censored,
To be clear satirizing and laughing at our situation is now seen as dissent. It is now seen as hate speech.
All this fear-mongering draws on people’s normal fears of dying horrible deaths-one cannot laugh when they can hear the dry funeral drums being played in their heads.
It is of course understandable not wanting to be dead, but living in constant fear is a living death. Being joyless, and not laughing or hearing a funny story makes us human undefined policing this simple part of life is part of the growing tyranny that we are experiencing now.
I think it is self-evident to anyone who glances at the mainstream media that fear is their staple.
John Lennon once wrote undefinedLiving is easy with eyes closedundefined and that’s exactly what this reality TV that masquerades as American politics does undefined it programs the citizenry to do: navigate the world with their eyes shut.
As long as we’re viewers, we’ll never be doers.
The ramifications for the future of civic engagement, political discourse and self-government are incredibly depressing and demoralizing.
We are becoming systematically desensitized and acclimated to the trappings of a government that operates by fiat and speaks in a language of force.
The surveillance society, the new Ministry of Truth , and the political spectacles have one common objective: to keep us divided, distracted, imprisoned, and incapable of taking an active role in the business of self-government.
Look behind the political spectacles, the reality TV theatrics, the sleight-of-hand distractions and diversions, and the stomach-churning, nail-biting drama, and you will find there is a method to the madness.
We have become guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, carefully orchestrated, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how to control a population and advance a political agenda without much opposition from the citizenry.
This is mind-control in its most sinister form.
You laugh and you can be amused to death undefined this is the new way of thinking undefined this is the new normal in all of its desolationist form.
How do you change the way people think? You start by changing the words they use. How do you get people to walk around fearing their own deaths? You take away the very thinbg that they use to deal with it undefined religion and the release we get from laughter and joy.
In totalitarian regimes where conformity and compliance are enforced at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and cannot be used.
In countries where tyranny hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the citizens censor themselves, policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind.
Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the end result is the same: intolerance, indoctrination, infantilism, the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.
As George Orwell recognized, “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Orwell understood only too well the power of language to manipulate the masses.
This explains how we keep getting saddled with leaders in government who are clueless about the Constitution and out-of-touch with the needs of the people they were appointed to represent.
Robert A. Heinlein wrote:
“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms, but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners, lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, which is more significant than an all out riot.”
The first targets of social war in a dictatorship are the media, artists and performers, comedians talk show hosts -anyone who has an opinion or story that does not fit the narrative the dictatorship wishes to push.
Truth is often lost when we fail to distinguish between opinion and fact, and that is the danger we now face as a society.
With blatant propaganda, governments flip the truth and warn that anyone who questions this are conspiracy theorists intent on causing trouble and therefore must be watched and refuted.
We are now living in a state of siege and there is no denying it undefined if you hav decided to act against it you may be too late. We have tolerated it far too long and so we are adapting to it.
This elite war against regular people has no end in sight. The elites know that people get worn down over time and lose hope; thus, they plan for the long haul and keep hammering away.
Unfortunately, since Americans have by and large become non-readers, and click bait fish. Television, Tik Tok and You Tube has become their prime source of so-called “news.” This reliance on the visual news has given rise to such popular news personalities and influencers who draw in vast audiences that virtually hang on their every word. In our media age, these are the new powers-that-be.
Yet while these personalities often dispense the news like preachers used to dispense religion, with power and certainty, they are little more than conduits for propaganda and advertisements delivered in the guise of entertainment and news.
Given the preponderance of news-as-entertainment programming, it’s no wonder that viewers have largely lost the ability to think critically and analytically and differentiate between truth and propaganda, especially when delivered by way of fake news criers and politicians.
The entertainment that fills the gap between news segments has now become so woke that there are far more lessons to be learned about Transgender, race, and politics than just allowing for the cruel laughter that is therapeutic against fear.
I donundefinedt need a lesson in wokeness and so I guess I will be watching more Rick and Morty.
Sure the humor is guttural undefined but what else is safe to laugh at when a countryundefineds spiritual and morsal foundations have given in to some toxic form of thought crime.
The bottom line is simply this: Americans should beware of letting others—whether they be television news hosts, political commentators or media corporations—do their thinking for them.
The great dissenters and rebels of the past, even when not overtly religious, kept faith with those who believed in fighting for noble a causes because they felt a deep, unbreakable, invincible connection. It is called different names or none at all. Maybe faith is the best word. Faith in what?
Faith in yourself- Faith in God, faith in people , in your country.
Without a spiritual foundation to sustain one for the long haul, depression will lead to despair or surrender. History should teach us this. The evil ones often win, at least in the short run, and each of us doesn’t have a long run.
Our time is brief.
SHOW GUEST: REGGIE FRENCH
Born and raised in Dallas, TX, Reggie French loves comedy almost as much as he loves the Cowboys. He has been performing standup comedy since 2016 when he was encouraged to come out to an open mic after a local comic heard his quick wit and banter while hosting his own radio show. His quiet demeanor and intimidating size off stage makes it hard for people to believe he is a comedian. It’s fitting his first showcase was on April Fools. However, once on stage, Reggie’s baritone voice, good comedic timing and storytelling style captures audiences and leaves them laughing and wanting more.
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